I’ve never been diagnosed with OCD, but everyone around me would probably come to an understanding that I most likely have OCD and neurotic tendencies. In particular:

My computer at work and my keyboard must be perfectly parallel to each other. So I’ll starting drafting an NDA or SPA or TSA and I’ll notice myself using my pinky to adjust my keyboard so that as I’m typing the keyboard remains perfectly parallel to the computer. It’s really disturbing actually. My pinky will hold on to the left side shift key to push the keyboard down or my left hand thumb will slight push on the bottom part of the keyboard to push it upwards. I noticed that I did this roughly 20 times in the span of drafting 18 pages or so. Uhm, does this mean I’m crazy?

I cannot stand grease/stains on my kitchen stove. As I’m cooking, I’ll leave a damp sponge next to the stove so I can periodically (read every 5 minutes) clean the stove and the surrounding counters to prevent stains from setting in or grease from coating the stove/counters. I do this to my poor husband as he’s cooking. I’ll stand there with a damp sponge cleaning after him. Help!

I get silently very upset when my dishes are not put away correctly. I seethed in silence as I put them in their correct place. I do not know why this bothers me so much, but mixing bowls go with mixing bowls and all of the utensils must be in their correct place – god forbid a fork may get mixed up with a spoon. I have a place for everything. Seriously. Measuring cups, check. Food storage containers, check. Disposable plates/cups, check. Everything has a spot. There is no, “I’ll find a place for it later” item. Yikes!

I am highly forgetful. I leave my cell phone at work. I leave it at home. Sometimes I forget I even have a cell phone! But, I do not lose things. I may temporarily misplace them in the house (because it got placed where it should not have by someone else or I was really distracted and can’t remember why I thought why putting it elsewhere would be more ideal!) However, I always find them again. So when I actually lose something it really bothers me. The hubs on the other hand, has managed to lose a laptop, my PSP, and my digital camera (with memory card inside ) and it doesn’t really bother him. Sure he may feel bad (because none of the items he’s lost is actually his ), sure he’s annoyed he can’t find it, but nothing to lose sleep over. Me? I fester in my total anguish that I’ve lost something. I lose sleep over it. I keep replaying how I might have lost the said item and how I could have prevented it from happening. I think I may need mental help.

I love containers. I have containers to hold other containers. Is this a disease? Don’t leave me in the container store for too long. I may hyperventilate with happiness and then die. Even worse, I’ll end up spending a small fortune on containers and storage units I “need” to have.

I know where everything is in my house, or at least 95% of the items in my house. This includes important documents, clothing, kitchen items, books, nail clippers, cleaning solutions, jewelry, magazines, photos, and shoes. If I do not know where an item is, it’s because someone else has found a “better” place for the item and neglected to disclose such location, or it’s a item I do not handle on a regular basis – aka husband’s golf paraphernalia.

I’m extremely loyal to things I love. If I love a certain brand, I will never veer or stray. This applies to button down shirts, shoes, recipes, cleaning solutions, etc. This also means that I refuse to try another “brand” ever. Case in point: I have a recipe for what I deem, “the world’s best chocolate chip cookies”. It’s not too sweet and it’s crunchy on the outside but oh so chewy on the inside. The hubs likes the cookie, but he asked me to make a slightly different adaptation of the cookie and I resisted for 2 years. By the way, he loves the new cookie recipe better. But it took me 2 years to change the recipe.

I do not like nuts or fruit in my food. I like nuts. I like fruit. But I like them by themselves. I have very few exceptions to this rule of mine, but I do not like nuts in my brownies or cookies. I do not like peanuts in food. I do not like fruit in food. The only exceptions are fruit pastries, ice cream and certain salads.

I hoard. Not like I need medical attention hoarding, but I do tend to hoard. Like baking supplies. I feel like I need baking supplies for royal icing (cookies), cakes, buttercream frosting, and all other cooking types separate. Technically, you don’t want ANY grease of any kind ever touching your royal icing, so my royal icing tips/spatulas are kept separate from my buttercream tips/spatulas. But again, I know it’s nothing a good cleaning wouldn’t fix. But I can’t help it. I NEED to have separate ones. I hoard designer bags. My husband has kept me on a strict no more bag leash for 2 years now because I have many many many bags. I have many many many shoes too. Many of them are very similar to each other. This is a disease. I also hoard bathroom supplies. I never never never want to be without toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. So I’ll buy a new whatever it is when I see it on sale or when I “think” we’re running low. Then I pat myself on the back when I see that we have indeed run out of said item and I can quickly whip out a new one from our drawer. The fact that there are 3 other new boxes on toothpaste be damned – I have prevented my family from going without toothpaste and I am a hero.

I write lists. I write lists of my lists. I have a dinner list, a grocery shopping list, budget list, gifts list, things to do list, things not to forget list .. a freaking list for everything. Perhaps this is why I feel like I’m always forgetting something and I can never fall asleep at night until I mentally go through all of my lists. Perhaps this is why I feel crazy most of the time. I have the LIRR and express bus time list on my bberry, including several back up transportation method time lists in case I’m ever in a situation where my primary mode of transportation is unavailable. However, most of the time I’ll call the hubs and beg him to pick me up. 99% of the time he will. The remaining 1% I’ll probably take a cab. But I need to have the list. It makes me feel safe. Have you decided I should go to a mental institute yet?